Our first month has flown by (as Ron predicated it would). We have very much enjoyed our time so far and thought we would share some of our observations, insights, and other musings from our time here in Lisbon.

We are amazed that everyone stops for pediastrians in the crosswalk. Drivers may come to a screeching halt inches from you, but they will always stop. Coming from Chicago where you have to practically beg drivers to respect crosswalks, it’s a nice change. And what’s more, bikers stop too! Unreal.

The Portuguese are such nice and kind people – except when it comes to getting on and off the metro. It is very much a eat or be eaten situation in the depths of the earth. Allow people off before entering? Hell no, not here. And you can very clearly be exiting the train – you’ll give all the signs, stand right by the door, fidget in anticipation. But people will still push around you to get on and off the train. Yet they do it with a smile and silence.

Our favorite restaurants are these hole in the wall places that have no more than 5 tables. We already have our weekly go-to places. Delicious, fresh food all over the place! The eating out culture here extends late into the evening and it has been so much fun people watching from the sidewalk cafes. Young and old are out until all hours of the night.

Laundry has been a challenge. We ordered a washer on our first day here and the one that was delivered was broken. It took nearly the full month to get a replacement that works. Dryers aren’t really a thing here and clotheslines are used by most of the population. Everyone assured me that hanging the clothes to dry was sufficient and I believed them. We did buy a washer/dryer combo knowing that we wouldn’t use the dryer on a daily basis but would have it in case we need it. Turns out, we aren’t really a clothesline family. Let me rephrase… we aren’t a clothesline family from the 6th floor (especially when the ground floor is level -1). It just seems a little high to be leaning out of the window. And after listening for 20 minutes before the one clothes pin I dropped hit the ground, all the clothes will remain inside to dry…

We have learned a lot about praxe – a tradition in academia where the entering students are welcomed (hazed?) by the upperclassman. We have an engineering university just adjecent to us and there is a large park just across our street. For the past 4 days, we have been watching upperclassmen clad in cassocks and black cloaks take over the park and direct freshman through loud chants, silly games, and have them dress up in distinctive outifts including dunce hats. It was entertaining at first. But by the 4th day, we got slightly annoyed with all the yelling. Speaking of the university, they put on a huge musical festival to start off the school year. On my Lisbon bingo card, I didn’t not have an engineering university as being the loudest thing in our neighborhood.

We haven’t closed all of our windows the entire time we have been here (expect for the aforementioned serenading from the engineering university). We love all the fresh air and the breeze that we are able to get through our unit. We have also discovered that we don’t understand weather. It is a beautiful 74 degrees F outside (still working on those C conversions) but within 4 minutes outside, we are drenched with sweat. Totally confused. We are nearly certain that the sun shines more brightly here than anywhere else.

Kiosks! We love kiosk life. All around the city, usually next to a playground, you will find a kiosk with a number of small tables. Grab a beer, coke, food… and just enjoy the aforementioned beautiful weather.

Emily and I start Portuguese class on Monday! We are incredibly nervous but are looking to maybe, just maybe, being able to understand more of what people are saying to us, as opposed to just nodding along and saying yes or no :).

We got a fridge! Finally!

But first… we rounded out our first two weeks here is Lisbon the same way we started them – with dinner at our favorite pizza place, Tozzi’s. As a family, we had several meal traditions back in Chicago. On Wednesdays we would go to Pizzeria Serio and Scooter’s and we would always have Monti’s on the way home from a trip. We wanted to make sure that we found fun traditions like those, so that the girls would be excited. We opted for Tozzi Tuesdays as a first one so now, every Tuesday, you will find us at Tozzi’s, having a Pumpqueen pizza and a strawberry nutella pizza for dessert.

Our second week was much along the same lines as our first. We continue to get the house set up and thankfully, it is feeling more like home. We have continued to explore new areas of Lisbon and are loving the cooler weather. I keep trying to think of how I would describe the weather here and the best way I can think to do so is to describe it as curveous. The mornings are generally pretty cool and while the midday temperatures aren’t necessarily that high, you will feel scorched thanks to the immensely bright sun baring down on you. Then the evenings cool to a temperature that requires jackets and pants. Let’s just say that when we pack for this move (because we did leave some things back in Chicago), we didn’t do a great job.

Our win this week was defintely getting the fridge. On the day that we arrived, before we headed to Tozzi’s, we headed to Worten’s and ordered a fridge, dishwasher, washing machine, A/C unit, and TV. Worten’s is a huge chain here is Portugal and the place most recommended when you ask where to buy appliances. Our TV and washing machine showed up but nothing else ever did. We went down there twice to ask about the deliveries and spent a total of 18 hours waiting. While the people in the store were nice, they never could give us a straight answer about where our delivery was, rather saying that they would schedule another delivery window. Needless to say, after the third time, we politely but forcefully, rejected their offer and requested a refund. The next day we went to a local store and had everything delivered the following day. Oh yeah, our washing machine from Worten’s arrived broken so we are still fighting that battle. But we have a fridge!!

Our “American” event from this week was finally ordering from Amazon. Here in Portugal, you need to use Amazon Spain for the best chance to avoid custom charges. I really, really wanted to avoid using Amazon at all because we wanted to spend our money locally. But after failing time and time again to find sheet fasteners, I had to pull the plug and order. Luckily the process was pretty seamless.

Until next week…